I live in the Netherlands where prostitution is legal. There are laws in place to protect the women (such as legal age limit which used to be 16, is now 18, but the government is even considering raising it to 23). Of course, it still remains dangerous and there are a lot of shady people involved in the industry. But by-and-large the Netherlands realises that prostitution is an 'evil' that no amount of legislation will ever eradicate. Rather than criminalise it and drive it underground the government provides safeguards so that the prostitutes receive the best care and protection possible.

I live in the Netherlands where prostitution is legal. There are laws in place to protect the women (such as legal age limit which used to be 16, is now 18, but the government is even considering raising it to 23). Of course, it still remains dangerous and there are a lot of shady people involved in the industry. But by-and-large the Netherlands realises that prostitution is an 'evil' that no amount of legislation will ever eradicate. Rather than criminalise it and drive it underground the government provides safeguards so that the prostitutes receive the best care and protection possible.

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Exactly. Criminalizing it only creates a black market with no protection for the women at all.
Instead make it legal and put in place safeguards for the women.
I think it's just a job like any other but just like any other jobs there needs to be good regulations and so on.

Gold Member

Which is why i'm a libertarian on drugs and prostitution, I've thought of it before, porn is legal because it falls under free speech and art protections. Might as well legalize prostitution, the prohibition harms more women than it ever will help

Gold Member

I agree with the above. My country of origin (Norway) has become more and more liberal about porn but much stricter about prostitution in recent years. Currently, it is legal to sell sex but illegal to buy. The reasoning behind was mostly that prostitution was seen as abuse of women (very little was said about male prostitution). I took this phrasing by the politicians quite personal, as I had bought sex a couple of times before I met my wife (and before it became illegal). I found the prostitutes I met to be in control and not "victims" at all.

The strange thing is that I often feel hard-core porn can be more "de-humanizing" than prostitution, although this may be colored by my personal experiences. For instance, when I was a loner, I found it very pleasant that one of the escort girls would chat and cuddle for a while afterward. She was basically being nice as I came very quickly. In contrast, I think that many people like porn to be as impersonal and dirty as possible, primarily because you are just watching and not participating, so it takes a bit extra to turn people on. It depends on what you compare of course, you can find both moral and immoral behavior in porn and prostitution alike.

Anyhow, if you ask me, if you're buying hard-core porn, then you are supporting prostitution (if it's soft-core, you're essentially supporting strip tease). The fact that others are doing the "dirty work" for you does not really change much, IMO. Yes, you may be safe from STDs, but the porn stars are not. I think it all should be legal, as long as it does not break other laws dealing with legal age and violence.